Chabot College’s nursing program has been ranked #1 in California for 2020 in the 4th Annual Nursing School Program Rankings by RegisteredNursing.org. Chabot has been in second or third place for the last few years. The California list ranks 126 nursing programs, including those at four-year schools.

The ranking is based on the percentage of students passing the NCLEX-RN exam, an annual test run by the California Board of Registered Nursing (BRN). Chabot students who finish the program and take the test, pass the test close to 100% of the time, according to Kevin Kramer, Dean of Health, Kinesiology & Athletics. The state average is 85%.

Nursing is a two-year program at Chabot, with about two years of prerequisite classes selected by the BRN, such as anatomy, physiology, and microbiology. Students gain experience in hospitals, receive an associate degree, and then can take the official state board test to be qualified to work in nursing.

Connie Telles, Director of Chabot’s Nursing Program, explains that jobs may be possible with an associate degree, but cautions that “Most hospitals want graduates now with a bachelor’s degree a lot of places at least want them to be in a bachelor’s program.” Chabot has a ‘bridge’ program with CSU East Bay for students to transfer and earn a bachelor’s degree in one year.

Kramer says the program gauges its success in how well its students do on the state board tests, rather than in comparison to other colleges on rankings. “Are the students passing the test? Are they graduating? If they’re doing that, then that makes us happy.”

The nursing program has three hundred people applying for the 40 spaces in Fall 2020. Applications for the Fall semester closed in January. Fall 2021 applications will open on Nov. 1, 2020.

This spring will see Chabot’s 53rd graduating class since the nursing program began in 1967.